As a species, we haven’t evolved to plan 20 years into the future. As a rule, our decision-making is myopic, shortsighted, and lacks imagination. We’re heavily incentivized to seek rewards in the present, which can greatly cost our long-term Future Selves.

[If you don't] think and strategize long term, [you'll be distracted by the short-term.]
You’ll be caught up by endless distractions throughout your day.
Your decisions will be myopic.
You’ll cost your Future Self greatly, putting them deeper in debt in all ways.

It is not the past, but the future, that drives a person’s actions and behaviors. All goals can be placed in two categories: approach or avoidance. Connected to your Future Self, you can appreciate, embrace, and love the present. Connection to your Future Self creates purpose and meaning in the present. The more connected you are to your longer-term Future Self, the better and wiser your decisions today.

Every time you choose your Future Self over your current self, there is risk. But being your Future Self now and doing what your Future Self would do immediately creates results beyond anything you’ve done before. Yes, with deliberate practice comes failure. Yes, being in the arena can lead to battle scars. It’s better to fail at the level of your Future Self than succeed as your current self. How much does your schedule reflect your Future Self?

The more you put your Future Self in debt in terms of health, learning, finances, and time, the more painful and costly will be the eventual toll. There will be a lot of interest to pay if you continually accrue debt. Everything you do can be categorized as either a cost to or an investment in your Future Self. Costing your Future Self means you’re more focused on present or short-term rewards over long-term consequences. Costing your Future Self means you’re consuming far more than you’re creating. Every little action adds up. A cost makes you less healthy in some way, whether mentally, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, or physically. If repeated, costs make you fatter, lazier, hazier, and less connected. A cost is something that comes to control you, rather than you controlling it.

Your Future Self is the driver of your life. Your Future Self is different than you expect. Your Future Self is inevitable, yet the outcome is optional. Your Future Self is what you’re measuring. Failing as your Future Self is how you succeed. Being successful is only possible by being true to your Future Self. Your view of God impacts your views of your own Future Self.

How often is not the prospect of future happiness thus sacrificed to one's impatient insistence upon an immediate gratification.

Are you willing to put the important before the urgent? Are you committed to your current self or your Future Self? Are you driven by short-term and urgent battles, or lifting your gaze to be your Future Self now? Without question, taking ownership of your time demands commitment and courage. Busy can be a comfort zone despite knowing you’re being ineffective. Living busy and trapped in lesser goals allows you to avoid the truth of your Future Self.

If we continue to hold on to a dream for something in the future, we lose the present moment. And if we lose the present, we lose everything.

Brutal truth: You’re living too much in the future, and that’s limiting your growth.

There is nothing more indicative of future success than the ability to ignore what could happen tomorrow and focus on what needs to happen today.

"We have negative mental habits that come up over and over again. One of the most significant negative habits we should be aware of is that of constantly allowing our mind to run off into the future. Perhaps we got this from our parents. Carried away by our worries, we're unable to live fully and happily in the present. Deep down, we believe we can't really be happy just yet — that we still have a few more boxes to be checked off before we can really enjoy life. We speculate, dream, strategize, and plan for these "conditions of happiness" we want to have in the future; and we continually chase after that future, even while we sleep. We may have fears about the future because we don't know how it's going to turn out, and these worries and anxieties keep us from enjoying being here now."

Rather than putting your Future Self in deeper debt, make your Future Self wealthier. Continually position your Future Self for freedom of time, money, relationships, and overall sense of purpose.

As a society, we’re so focused on instantaneous gratification that our short-term solutions often become long-term problems.

It’s so easy to commit your future self to things your current self wouldn’t want to do,” he says. “We call this a ‘planning fallacy.

Getting your schedule to reflect your Future Self is a major and important step that very few people fully embrace. It will never be convenient to stop the firehose of lesser goals. They will never stop coming. Most externally successful people still fall into the trap of being managed by time, rather than owning and creating their experience of time.